A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire by Michael Bishop
Weird type to go with weird illustration, for the cover of Michael Bishop’s debut novel.
ITC Honda is used with its alternates for f, r, t, s. Most of these are superior to the default forms. Not only does the tailed t make for more cohesive word images. The alternate f and s also blend in better than the default forms which are crammed and top-heavy, respectively. They’re not without flaws, though: f is still big-headed and only works when not followed by another ascending glyph. And s is not wide enough at the top, just like c and e are too narrow at the bottom. They cause gaps, as one can see in the author’s name. For an example how to make Honda work – by letting problematic pairs overlap – see The Nightwalker.
The typography furthermore presents a peculiar variation of title case: Those words that are typically capitalized are here set in all caps.
Cover art by Gene Szafran.
